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Nancy Bixler of Santa Barbara was terrified when she started thinking about getting Botox. After researching the procedure and speaking with doctors in and out of her area, she was dissatisfied with what she learned.

Then a friend referred her to Newport Beach plastic and reconstructive surgeon Michael Bain who has developed a technique for injection in order to produce consistent results.

“I decided to try him, and my first experience was very easy,” Bixler said. “His nurse is fantastic and Dr. Bain made me feel completely comfortable.”

Bain, who is a second-generation Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian physician, developed his method with another doctor more than three years ago while in his fellowship in Pennsylvania. Bain’s main goal was to have consistent results that were natural and lessened the likelihood of undesirable side effects such as droopy eyes. What he came up with was, “The Triangular Pattern for Botox Forehead Rejuvenation.”

“People don’t want to look like a stone-face, and I really don’t want my patients to look like that,” Bain said. “My goal is when someone comes to me that no one knows they came to me.”

Bixler is one of Bain’s success stories, the surgeon said.

“With the way it looked, nobody could tell that I had anything done. I just looked rested, and I guess they didn’t remember that I had had the creases and wrinkles,” Bixler said, adding that she’s only had to see Bain twice for Botox because of her good results. “I just looked better every time I’ve had it done.”

Bain has spread the word internationally and is going to be published in the September-October issue of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery’s Aesthetic Surgery Journal. He has also spoken at the Plastic Surgery International Symposium in Israel and at the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery conference about his procedure.

“Most things in medicine … are taught in a systematic way, so what we wanted to do was come up with a systematic approach to reproduce good results,” Bain said.

In his procedure, Bain makes marks on the forehead, which create a series of triangles when connected. He then injects the chemical in certain muscles in the area, according to the patient’s requests.

“You have to avoid the bad areas,” he said. “We look at the anatomy of the forehead and the face and look at the anatomy of the muscles we want to have not move as much and the ones we want to have relax.”

Bain hopes to be more involved in educating doctors, nurses and others who inject the chemical and thinks the article in the cosmetic journal may help his procedure gain notoriety.

“It’s the most prestigious aesthetic surgery journal in the country, and arguably in the world, and I’m very excited,” he said.

The publication is distributed internationally. It is divided into two categories, and Bain’s article will appear as one of seven articles in the practical application section.

Bain also said his technique’s consistent results can help repair the bad reputation Botox has had. The chemical has been used medically for at least 30 years, he said, and despite misconceptions is safe when injected properly.

“People are just now starting to see different uses, and they’re broadening their horizons,” he said.

Botox has also been shown to be an effective treatment for excessive sweating and migraines, he said. Bain sees an average of 10 Botox patients every week, and it isn’t just the aging population, he said, adding that he has patients of all ages who come for the injections.

He said: “When people look in the mirror and see someone different than who they have in their own mind, that’s when people come to me, to make them go back to who they want to be or who they are.”